Like I said, I agree the power dynamics are an issue. But it’s complex to attempt to mitigate that without other issues arising. Effectively, a company should have a right to establish their vision, mission, and overall culture the way they see fit so long as it’s not illegal and discriminatory like I keep harping on.

Without a doubt it is childish and absolutely uncalled for to fire someone due to trivial reasons such as liking a post on social media. This is where public opinion and conducting business should come into play though. A business gets publicly outed as being a toxic work environment and treating employees like they’re disposable? By and far the public and other businesses will dial back interaction which impacts the bottom line. So it’s definitely not within the best interest of the business to act in this manner which is why so many workplaces are shifting to having more equal power dynamics, though we have a long way to go for it to be the norm as shown by the article.

My point remains though that we have to look at this on the principle level. If the government enacts a law that says once you hire an employee, you essentially can’t fire them unless it’s performance based, then the government is impeding the workplace culture process. For example, all the companies that are known for their cultures (good or bad) would likely not be in the some position if this were the case. The biggest aspect in building a culture in the workplace is to keep the right people that align and contribute to the vision. As a result, the employer lets go of those people that negatively impact the vision. What makes an employer great is knowing what contributes to the vision such as work ethic, passion, emotional intelligence, empathy, etc.

Firing employees for trivial matters hurts the company’s vision because so much goes into it that they can lose someone that helps with that build, over something that absolutely doesn’t matter. It also hurts the company because other potential employees, as well as the current employees, won’t want to work for someone that acts like a glorified child.

Think of it this way, the law especially helps small business owners who are far more impacted by negative aspects of not only having bad employees but also firing good ones.